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Link support maintained

Residents at an electors meeting last week voted to ask the City to back away from supporting the controversial road until it holds a �new, open and transparent� community consultation about the link with residents and ratepayers.

The City resolved to support the road in July and chief executive Shayne Wilcox said it would not change its stance.

�The City cannot and will not pre-empt any decision of council,� he said.

�Until council meets on September, 15, the council�s previous resolved position remains unchanged.�

Rethink the Link co-convenor Kim Dravnieks said there was serious opposition from the community to the $1.6 billion project designed to link Roe Highway to the Fremantle Port.

She said residents were concerned not only for their own in Palmyra but for other suburbs outside Melville and in the path of the proposed toll road.

�We just need to keep putting pressure on council and the State and Federal governments,� she said.

�We aren�t getting the data we want and we haven�t been consulted properly.�

Cockburn Mayor Logan Howlett said the clear message from an increasing number of local governments and their communities was for an immediate stop to the freight link.

�There needs to be a round table series of meetings called by the Premier to examine alternative options to the proposed route of the link,� he said.

�Reviewing the Infrastructure Australia Report would be a good starting point.�

That report, which was released last week, copped heat from a number of fronts. Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said the �project was doomed� and Perth MHR Alannah MacTiernan said the �link�s countless flaws and questionable genesis were dragged into the spotlight� by the release of the document.

But Assistant Infrastructure and Regional Development Minister Jamie Briggs said the report showed the link was the �infrastructure solution for WA�.

On Thursday the City of Kwinana released the Indian Ocean Gateway plan, which backed an outer harbour at Cockburn Sound.

Kwinana Mayor Carol Adams said the tender for the sale of Fremantle Port should require the construction of the first stage of the outer harbour within 10 years.

�Nearly everyone you ask � from government, to opposition, to industry itself � agrees that the Outer Harbour is the future of port trade in Perth,� she said.